My seven-year itch

It has hit me. After seven years of productively feeding Amsterdam Ad Blog with content, an estimated 4,500 hours of work, and over 300.000 written words, I am ready for some change.

Seven years ago I started this blog as a sideline. But the sideline has gotten a little out of hand and is taking up too much of my time. I am guessing today about 15 to 20 hours a week. Not much, you might think, for entertaining some 20,000 unique visitors a month.

Maybe true, but combining it with my job as freelance brand strategist and trying to write a second book on creativity is a little hard. It’s like having three small companies and wanting them all to thrive, while very subtly, but systematically neglecting them. To keep my three plates spinning properly I need much more time than simply 3 times 20 hours a week.

The fun part of Amsterdam Ad Blog is having my own platform on which I can give my opinion on brands and advertising on a daily basis – it’s why I became both a strategist and a blogger. And I also don’t mind being editor-in-chief. One of my columnists once told me very kindly; “you’re a born editor“. You can imagine that it tickled my ego.

What I do mind however is dealing with what I see as the fringes of the blog. Being the COO, CFO, CTO, and what not. Most of it doesn’t spark joy. Even with Evelyn Grunau’s invaluable help – who has assisted me one day a week since 2012 – there are just too many things I’d rather not deal with.

It’s my own fault of course. I named the blog “Amsterdam Ad Blog”, started writing in English, and chose to feature the best work and people from Amsterdam. All for one reason; I wanted the title to be able to grow bigger than myself and even bigger than the Dutch ad industry. It worked. And thanks to the international formula 50% of the traffic is from abroad.

But I need some change. And, as said, more focus. Which is ironic because as a strategist I often tell the brands I work for they need to focus. I guess the Dutch saying ‘the plumber’s tap leaks’ has been true in my case.

So what to do?

I first thought about writing a final blogpost and then simply quit the blog. But when I suggested this to people around me they told me: “You can’t!” Here are some of the kind descriptions the ad industry has had for this blog over the past years: ‘the Bible for expats’, ‘an institute’, ‘the only Dutch ad magazine with an opinion’, ‘critical, but nuanced’ and ‘well-kept’.

Again, tickling. That’s why over the past months I’ve researched the possibilities of partnering with an established publisher to keep the blog alive and even bring it to a higher level. This would allow me to only focus on the content for a while and not worry about all the operational stuff – which would save me quite some time, or at least earn me some money.

However, the three publishers I talked with – Vice Media, Adfo Groep, and LBB Online – didn’t see the opportunity – sufficiently. Which is fair enough. It proves that it’s not easy to make money with qualitative niche content and that from a commercial viewpoint it’s a wise decision to focus my energy on other activities.

So, after much sparring and pondering I’ve decided to quit writing regular posts for this blog. No more catchy – if I may – ad reviews and no more superficial news-items. And – finally – no more pressure from the endless inbox with press releases.

The good news is that I’ve decided to keep the platform alive. I am planning to continue to do columns, event reviews and interviews once in a while.

More importantly though; I will keep the blog open for the ad community to contribute. I already have quite a few contributors who write columns and inspirational pieces on a regular basis. Then there is JongeHonden, RA*W, Dutch Digital Design and – since very recently – the ADCN, who contribute to this blog.

And I am open for other contributors who want to share their opinion, inspiration or write-up of an ad event. There’s one catch though; it needs to be qualitative content. Which means with an original, intelligent and/or eloquent view on advertising.